Ants Have Been Farming for 60 Million Years

Humans have been farming for roughly 12,000 years and we consider it a major achievement. Leafcutter ants have been doing it for about 60 million years, so maybe hold the applause.

These tiny agricultural pioneers slice up leaves — not to eat, but to carry back underground as compost. They use the decomposing plant matter to grow a specific species of fungus that no longer exists in the wild. The fungus has evolved to live exclusively inside ant colonies, fed and tended by ants, for millions of years. It is a co-dependent relationship that would make a therapist raise an eyebrow.

The ants have also developed natural antibiotics, produced by bacteria that live on their bodies, to protect their fungal crops from disease. In other words, they invented agriculture, indoor farming, and pharmaceutical pest control — all before the dinosaurs were entirely gone.

If there is a lesson here, it is that ants have been quietly out-innovating us for longer than we care to admit. The good news is they have not figured out the stock market yet. Probably.